Directors
Find out more about the senior leadership of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute.
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Professor Larissa Fast - Executive Director and Professor of Humanitarian and Conflict Studies
Larissa is Executive Director and Professor of Humanitarian and Conflict Studies. She is a scholar and practitioner with over two decades of experience at the intersection of research, policy, and practice related to humanitarianism, conflict, and peacebuilding. Her research examines the causes of and responses to violence against conflict interveners, such as aid workers and peacebuilders, the role of data and technology in humanitarian settings, and ways to make intervention more effective, ethical, and responsive to local needs and context.
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Dr Birte Vogel - Deputy Director and Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies
Birte joined the academic staff of HCRI in 2016. She is the Editor of the HCRI Policy Brief Series and was previously Assistant Editor of the Taylor and Francis journal Peacebuilding. Her two recent, co-edited books reflect her general research interest in the intersection of economics and peace and conflict studies and humanitarianism (Economies of Peace, Routledge, 2019), as well as her interest in the ethics of conducting research in conflict-affected societies (The Companion to Peace and Conflict Fieldwork, Palgrave, 2021).
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Dr Adele Aubrey - Head of Institute Operations and Partnerships
Adele completed a Doctorate in Education at the University of Manchester in enquiry-based learning and dimensions of contextualized power within higher education teaching and learning environments. Her current educational projects are: the development, piloting and assessment of a European training package, focused on operational team training, and training-of trainers of emergency medical teams within low-income countries and resource-poor settings; and arts-based community education in fragile contexts in Nairobi, Soweto and New Delhi.
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Professor Darren Walter - Director of Online Programmes, and Clinical Professor in International Emergency Medicine
Darren's research interests are in emergency care system development and capacity building. He has been involved in the WHO Emergency Medical Teams project and supported the WHO Emergency Care System Assessment process. He is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Wythenshawe Hospital and a Royal College of Emergency Medicine representative on the Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee supporting the UK ambulance services.
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Professor Bertrand Taithe - Director of Research and Professor of Cultural History
Humanitarian aid historian Bertrand founded HCRI in 2008. His research focuses on the history of humanitarian medicine. A member of the scientific committee CRASH, he's written articles on the history of humanitarian work, exhibitions and cultural manifestations. He edits the European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, Journal of Humanitarian Affairs and founded and leads The Humanitarian Archive at the Rylands. He's an editor of the book series Humanitarianism: Key Debates and New Approaches, and Cultural History of Modern War for Manchester University Press.
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Dr Miriam Bradley - Director of Postgraduate Research and Senior Lecturer in Humanitarian Studies
Miriam joined HCRI in 2023, prior to which she was an Associate Professor at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals. Her research examines international responses to conflict, violence, and migration, and she is the author of two books: Protecting Civilians in War: The ICRC, UNHCR, and their Limitations in Internal Armed Conflicts (OUP 2016) and The Politics and Everyday Practice of International Humanitarianism (OUP forthcoming/2023).
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Dr Róisín Read - Undergraduate Programme Director, and Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies
Róisín joined HCRI in 2014 as part of the Making Peacekeeping Data Work for the International Community project, and is now a Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies. Her research sits at the intersection of peace and conflict and humanitarian studies. She is interested in exploring how feminist and postcolonial approaches might help us to understand international interventions in conflict and post-conflict contexts, with a geographical focus on Sudan and South Sudan.
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Dr Stephanie Sodero - Postgraduate Taught Director, and Lecturer in Climate Change and Health
Stephanie focuses on vital mobilities that impact life chances. Her research examines how medical goods such as blood, saline and oxygen move from points of production to points of care and how such geographically dispersed supply chains can be made more buoyant in a changing climate. Care for the climate and communities is central to her work. Stephanie's first book is Under the Weather: Reimagining Mobility in the Climate Crisis (Mcgill-Queen's University Press, 2022).
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